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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 A Curator's Viewpoint
 Reading the inscriptions and monograms
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| Author | Topic: Reading the inscriptions and monograms |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 09-05-2008 10:23 AM
  
Herein a story of confusing, but ultimately story-rich engraving. Back in 1982 I purchased at auction a coffee and tea service that had belonged to the Ballantine family of Newark (whose house is part of The Newark Museum). But there were confusing monograms and marks on the set. Does anyone want to take a stab at unravelling the mystery before I explain it? The set consisted of a hot water urn, coffee pot, teapot, cream, sugar and waste bowl. Each piece had two monograms (both are shown in the images) and there were two different marks (both are shown). By the way, the pattern is "Portland," based on the shape of the famed Portland Vase at the British Museum. IP: Logged |
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jersey Posts: 1203 |
posted 09-05-2008 02:21 PM
Mr. Dietz, Could you please tell me what the monograms are I can't see them at all clearly. Thank you! Jersey IP: Logged |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 09-08-2008 09:10 AM
All of the pieces in the service have two monograms, a JJB (the Js are crossed and look like an X) and JEB. Clue one is that the dated inscription on the bottom of every piece refers to the JEB monogram. IP: Logged |
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jersey Posts: 1203 |
posted 09-08-2008 11:51 AM
Whoa! I can't wait for the mystery to be solved, but I have two things I'd like to mention. 1. I have a Tiffany 10" footed silver tray on the back marked Tiffany & co. # 6022, HE & Co. EP, (don't know what that means). I do know EP is Electroplated, & it has the initials JEB on the front. 2. I bought it because they were my initials. Jersey IP: Logged |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 09-09-2008 02:02 PM
I guess no one's hammering down the door to guess this. This service was put up at Christie's by a church in Lake Wales Florida. I got it for the Museum, because of a friend at Christie's who heard that it had belonged to the Ballantines of Newark. But I figured out the story from the inscriptions. The hot water urn was made for John Ballantine, somewhere from 1865-69, according to the mark. It has only (as I recall) JB on it. Hence the 550 Broadway mark of pre-1870 Tiffany & Co.The tea and coffee set, also in the Portland pattern (which I can't remember seeing another example of, for all its plainness)was made right around 1870, after the Union Square store opened--the pattern number shows the same date range as that on the tea urn. The JJB (XB) mark is for John and Jeannette Ballantine, who were married in about 1860, and hence this might have been ordred as a 10th anniversary commemoration (hence the crossed J's). However, the OTHER monogram, done in the same style, probably by Tiffany's, commemorates the August 3, 1935 date. That, it turns out, was one of their grandchildren.The fourth child of John and Jeannette's youngest son, Percy, was Elizabeth Jeannette Ballantine (Betty) and she married William Cochrane in 1935, and was given the silver as a wedding heirloom. She loved it so much she left it to her church in Florida (which must have seemed a good idea at the time), who were so honored they sold it at auction in 1981. It was used in the very house that we own and run at the Museum, and so it was almost a miracle that Christie's thought to call me. Lord knows they never have since! IP: Logged |
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